After events like the attack on congressional Republicans, says Megan McArdle at Bloomberg, mainstream liberals and conservatives alike “forget their own radical factions . . . feign naivete and say, ‘What can be done?’ ” But the fact is the extremes of both sides “have always flirted with political violence.” And most of the usual suggestions — mass gun confiscation, a media blackout — are either impractical or politically unfeasible. What this country needs to do is “end its political culture that celebrates violence, metaphorically or otherwise.” Fact is, everyone “has the right to politically organize for a cause they believe in,” but “they do not have the right to win.” Because “when people start to think victory is an inalienable right, the fists and guns come out.”

From the right: Is Trump Facing a Stacked Deck?

At the very least, suggests Fred Barnes at The Weekly Standard, President Trump “will be on defense for months to come,” under scrutiny by a special counsel, Congress, “mobs of protesters and the elite media” — all with “the sword of impeachment . . . hanging over him.” For one thing, “special counsels tend to expand their investigations beyond any underlying crime (if there is one) and keep going until they find someone to indict.” Meanwhile, Capitol Hill “Democrats are convinced acts of collusion will be found somewhere if they keep looking for them long enough.” And “if Republicans balk, they’ll be accused of a cover-up.” Plus, “the Democratic base is clamoring for impeachment.” Trump’s “inclination is to counterpunch when attacked,” and his base “will probably stick with him.” Meaning “the result won’t be pretty.”

Centrist: Don’t Count on Millennials to Save the West

Many commentators are confident that young people’s “left-leaning values will be a moderating influence on their insular, xenophobic, right-wing parents” in years to come, says The Washington Post’s Catherine Rampell. But “this complacency may be misplaced.” For while younger voters “appear to be growing more left-wing,” they also are “growing more illiberal and more radical.” It’s a generation that “came of age in the Great Recession,” with its skepticism of the establishment and unfettered capitalism. “Hence the Bernie bromance, which also came with promises of free college, higher taxes on the wealthy and more generous government health care.” Indeed, “millennials are the most politically radical generation ever recorded.” So “defenders of the West might want to start working on Plan B.”

Conservative take: Dems Keep Marching Leftward

Both victory and defeat “have been radicalizing experiences for the Democratic Party during this century,” notes Ramesh Ponnuru at National Review: Democrats “moved left” after losing to George W. Bush, “father left” after winning with Barack Obama and “farther left still” after losing to Donald Trump. Bottom line: The party is now “well to the left of where it was during Bill Clinton’s administration,” which is why Hillary Clinton last year “felt it necessary to disavow many of her husband’s old stances, and some of her own.” And “the odds are pretty good” that the next Democratic nominee “will run on a program even more left-wing.” Because despite calls not to condescend toward people they disagree with, “no prominent members of the party are saying that it should actually moderate its positions on abortion, immigration, or religious liberty.”
Columnist: Better Apprenticeships Than College

President Trump is making the expansion of apprenticeships the centerpiece of his labor policy. John Daniel Davidson at The Federalist hails that model, “in which younger workers gain specialized skills by learning directly from veterans in a given trade through hands-on experience.” Better yet, it serves “what should be a larger national goal: reducing the number of young people seeking degrees at four-year colleges.” Indeed, “keeping more of America’s youth out of our hopelessly politicized institutions of higher learning, and putting them to work as skilled laborers, might do the country real and lasting good.” We need “more plumbers and fewer philosophers — or at least fewer philosophy students.”